“It doesn’t take long for suffering, trial, and difficulty to become a crisis of faith. There are moments in suffering when God doesn’t make sense to us. . . . There are circumstances that don’t look at all like good gifts from his hands. These moments can easily morph into a crisis of personal faith.”- Paul David Tripp
Paul David Tripp concludes Chapter 7 of Suffering as he talks about the final four antidenial implications found in Hebrews 4:14-16
2. Because of His advocacy, you have reason to stand strong. First, Pastor Tripp note the helpfulness of the words “let us hold fast to our confession.”
For our ability to figure out our circumstances never provides our reason for continuing to believe and to place our lives in God’s hands. Therefore, we only find our motivation to stand firm in the faith in one thing. That’s God’s declaration that He is for us, not against us. And this rings true even when we go through things we don’t understand.
3. Your Advocate is able to sympathize with your weaknesses. Suffering always exposes our weaknesses and confronts us with how little in life we truly control. Furthermore, suffering isn’t what weakens us. Rather, suffering exposes weaknesses that we’ve had all along. So, when we admit our weakness, we can run to Jesus. He understands weakness on every level. Finally, Jesus lived through His earthly hardships for you!
4. You can come to Him with confidence. When you no longer can depend on things that used to be dependable, everything in your world seems shaken. Yet, Pastor Tripp exhorts, in such moments you can build your motivation and hope on one thing. That’s the understanding and sympathetic love of Jesus, your sovereign Savior. Not only does Jesus possess the experience to understand you and the sympathy to help, but He has the power to make a difference.
5. There is mercy and grace form fit for your moment of need. Although people mean well, often they fail to understand what you are going through. As a result, they can’t accurately target what you need. However, Jesus offers help form fit to your individual needs.
Today’s question: When has your suffering morphed into a crisis of personal faith? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Unchecked discouragement”
